Seven Sisters near the moon on December 21
Print Me Email to FriendTonight's Sky for Tuesday, Dec 01 2009
Tonight in the east-northeastern sky, the waxing gibbous moon will be right next to the most recognizable objects in the night sky. It’s the Pleiades (M45), or Seven Sisters, an actual cluster in space whose member stars are bound by gravity.
The Pleiades appears to the eye as a tiny dipper, wrapped in a veil of mist. Despite the name Seven Sisters, many people see this cluster with the eye alone as six stars. Thus there are legends explaining the whereabouts of the “lost Pleiad.” But people have different abilities to see faint stars. It’s said that as many as 18 stars may be seen with the eye alone if your sky is exceptionally dark and clear. Binoculars will show you more stars, too, and a small telescope will reveal 40 or 50 stars (although the cluster is so large that you might get the best view of it through your telescope’s finderscope). Professional astronomers have counted more than 200 stars here.
Throughout history, and in the lore of many nations, the Pleiades have had their own special mystery. This beautiful sky object has been compared to a swarm of fireflies or bees, to seven maidens, to a flock of doves, and to a hen surrounded by her chicks.
I continue to wish for star “stories” that are not solely Euro- or Asia- centric. For example, the Maya called the Pleiades the 400 Boys and they are featured in their Popul Vuh. Their evening setting marked the time for planting corn and they are thought of as a fist full of seeds today.
Hi Wendy … do you have a good source of information for non-Euro or Asia-centric star stories?
I wrote a short book — actually one of those miniatures from Running Press — about 15 years ago on World Star Lore. It is called, quite creatively, “Constellations,” and it has mostly non-classical stories from American Indians and others. It is out of print, but is available used on Amazon and other places.
Larry S.
I can never find the constellation draco. Not that I dont know where to look but I just cant see the constellation as a whole in the sky. I can find parts of it but you cant connect the stars in to a shape like you can to the big dipper and Orion. People had better night vision along time ago and thats why I think some constellations are so dim today for us. Electricity does have some negative stuff on us.